Creating Content that Works – 5 Experts Weigh In

Content is king and you can get plenty for cheap. In fact, it has never been cheaper to create ‘content’ – just go on Fiverr or hire an intern and you can get blog posts for pennies on the dollar.  But the question is – are you or your brand adding anything to the conversation? Are you educating or enlightening your audience with quality information? Or do you have a blog because everyone told you that it was critical to have one, the last time you updated it was four months ago and all you wrote about is how great your own product is?

Sound familiar?

Well, fortunately, plenty of brands are producing excellent, quality content that adds to or creates conversations that enrich their space.  We spoke with a few leading brands about how they develop great content. They’ve even included some tips for those of you who want to get it right.

What is the greatest challenge you face in developing consistent content?

“The real challenge for me is connecting the dots, which means covering the right topics at the right time and creating content that is valuable to the reader. We want them to feel that our content was worth their time and added to their understanding and their knowledge.”

Zoe Haimovitch, Head of Content at Sisense

“Put simply – scale. When we were a smaller team of just a few writers, consistency was easier. Now, we have 75 writers creating hundreds of content types across 16 languages. To help us keep it tight, we dedicate a lot of time and training to ensuring our brand voice is consistent and that text quality is high.”

Nora Ginio, Head of Content at Wix

“The biggest challenge for us isn’t so much in consistency but rather learning how to invest resources in content that matters. In other words, identifying and creating content pieces that will help teams throughout the organization.”

Aimee Millwood, Head of Content at YOTPO

Is content developed by a communications team or do members of the larger company team take part in developing it?

“When content is done best, it is a reflection of the collective expertise and perspective that the full company can bring. Whether it be writing the blog themselves, contributing ideas or acting as a sounding board, we love to include as many parties as possible.”

Gitit Greenberg, Senior Director of Marketing Insights at SimilarWeb

“Most of our content is created by our content team, but we often tap into internal employee experts to guest post or write on topics that they’re more knowledgeable in. The entire marketing team plays a role in creating our content calendar”

Aimee Millwood, Head of Content at YOTPO

“Variety is vital for our content development, from the topic all the way to the writer covering it. And to get that content variety, we use a variety of resources — internal content writers, knowledgeable Outbrainers who want to share their learnings, guest writers — it’s absolutely a team effort.”

Liraz Postan, Senior Manager of Global SEO & Content at Outbrain

What tips would you share with startups that want to start a blog? 

“Blogs need to be managed and committed to – consistency is key. Best practice would be to write and publish a blog twice a week. Be sure you do your research on keywords the target market is following and make sure you cover topics relevant to those keywords.”

Zoe Haimovitch, Head of Content at Sisense

“The key is understanding who your audience is, how you are going to provide them value and what your unique perspective or identity will be. The first step is to ask more about who your target market is.

Second, you need to figure out how you’re going to provide this specific audience with value. T

Third, understand your identity and tone of voice. Are you funny or serious? Do you use long form or quick hitting content? These elements are critical in building a sustainable content process.”

Gitit Greenberg, Senior Director of Marketing Insights at SimilarWeb

“The best advice we got when starting our blog: find a subject you’re really passionate about, because then you’ll dig deep to find an angle that no one else has ever thought of.”

Nora Ginio, Head of Content at Wix

“Your blog is one of the fundamental parts of your overall content strategy. Too many marketers rush the process, honing in on the quantity of their content pieces. Slow it down. Build your blog with a long-term point of view. Consult with an SEO expert, create a seamless reader experience, analyze the interests of your audiences to help diversify your strategy — all drivers that will help you focus on quality, and will make for a lasting content effort.”

Liraz Postan, Senior Manager of Global SEO & Content at Outbrain

Regardless of whether you are a bootstrapped startup or on you’ve got 5 offices around the world and are worth over $100 million – developing quality content for your blog can not only help your brand grow, but position it as a real thought-leader.